Rolling around Kuwait

Our location has changed and finally we've arrived in a semi-permanent location at camp spearhead. The days leading up to this were a mix of the usual Army down time and busy work, with a sliver of odd moments.

Upon arrival we were completely exhausted. They showed us to our new living quarters which was a large green tent with cots for sleeping. I didn't have much will in me to start exploring so I headed for the showers with heavy eyelids. These were strategically placed about 300 yards and two checkpoints away. So I trudged through the gravel, flung my ID card near the guards eyeballs and hopped into surprisingly good showers. From there I plopped into my sleeping bag, and to my surprise found the cots to be comfortable.

Early in the morning we all woke up to some wailing coming over distant loud speakers. Our camp is inside a Kuwaiti navel base and just outside the fence is a Mosque. About five times a day, depending on the alignment of the sun I believe, the call to prayer is heard from a slender minaret. The normal reaction of troops walking around the camp was usually to start humming along, attempting to imitate it. This provided some interesting ear splendor.

Around half the time we were there we had down time to adjust to the time changes. New York is approximately 8 hours behind Kuwait so it took some getting used to.

Whenever we did leave the base we headed for firing ranges near the Iraqi border. This made for three hour bus rides that become tedious, but offered up a great opportunity to catch up on lost sleep. Most of the time we were up and out by about 4am. It was still dark for most of the ride and in the distance I noticed what looked like large sticks of vertical light all across the desert landscape. Apparently many Kuwaiti Bedouins like to camp right off the roads. The lights look a lot like long fluorescent tubes you see in the ceiling of offices. A few times there were even herds of camels trotting around nearby areas.

Once at the firing range we were forced to embrace the change in climate. For the most part the only section of Kuwait I had seen was not all that different from the El Paso landscape. In many cases Kuwait seemed more fertile, with large trees and even grass growing in dispersed patches. Out on the range near the Iraqi border was a completely different place. It was entirely desolate and flat like most deserts are portrayed in film and television. You know the scenes, a single guy dragging himself around gasping for water.

This all proved to be hell on my gun which locked up several times. Things weren't much better for my body either. In all my infinate wisdom I forgot to pack some goggles and my eyes payed the price. A day later I could still feel grains of sand crunching around in my eyes. For the guys and gals who live in this everyday, I'm impressed. After eight hours I was ready to be rid of it all.

After about three days of going to these ranges we thought we were finally through with them. To our surprise, the brigade decided that our company was going to give up our M4 weapons (The lighter version of the M16 rifle you see most people with) to give to a headquarters unit.

We were sent out again, and the mood of the company was furious. I actually saw some soldiers throwing dirt into the bolt and barrel of the rifle, and cranking the sights to completely screwed up positions. As annoyed as I was about losing my gun, I found this ridiculous that they would knowingly throw dirt into weapons, and sabotage the sights because they were upset about losing their M4s. I was less disturbed by this though when we received our rickety M16s that hadn't been cleaned in ages. Some of the bolts were rusty, almost all had a thick coat of carbon, and many of the weapons were incredibly worn out. I'm still curious as to why they decided to do this in Kuwait instead of within the United States where they had proper Zeroing ranges. I'm also curious as to why a headquarters unit is doing combat work in Iraq while an engineering unit stays behind but I guess I shouldn't complain abou that. When all was said and done, the people who were going north to Iraq right away have the better weapons and that sits alright with me.

After that controversy the mood turned more positive as we finally began doing our jobs. For the first two days we were trucked out to a nearby port we've been tasked to guard, but now we've made a permanent move which was gladly welcomed. We're still in large tents but soon we'll make the move to smaller eight man tents and a bit more privacy.

Overall this new camp is very similar to the old one, only a bit smaller. The major difference is the surrounding setting which is packed with smokestacks from the nearby port and oil refineries. Giant flames burst out from the top of most of them constantly. There's a question of air quality as there's not much of an EPA here. If you ask me, South Florida smells worse in many spots. Most of the guys leaving looked like they were in good health so for now I'm not going to worry about it.

So far my job has been entertaining. I was fortunate enough to end up on a team assigned to patrol the base on a Humvee which gave me the opportunity to scope out most of the base I wouldn't have otherwise seen. Lately I've been assigned as a gunner which means I get to stick my head out of hole on top of the Humvee and suck in some of the smokestack juices.

The crew that we're taking over from was made up of a creative and resourceful bunch. They somehow managed to put together an old tent from corpses of other tents to use as a bit of a hidden rest stop. They've also collected all sorts of other junk people were throwing out or giving away including a bunch of comfy chairs, a pair of cots, coffee maker, assorted games, magazines, and even a huge generator. Most amazingly (and as yet unverified) is that they somehow managed to sign for a brand new up armored Humvee that somehow was lost. Makes you feel all warm and cozy inside knowing the government can lose something that costs over 150,000 dollars.